Contact RJ off-Blog:
Sparrow Chat was born in late 2003 on a "Blogger" site, but following problems with the server, was moved to a "Wordpress" format. Unfortunately, at the time no-one on Wordpress had discovered a simple method of transferring posts from the beta version of Blogger, so the only archives available are from November 2006, when the blog migrated here.
"Yarns of a Professional Gongoozler"
by
R J Adams.
NOW AVAILABLE - IN PAPERBACK!
Subtitled "Tales of English Canal Life at Dixie's Marina", this book highlights both the touching and absurd aspects of living and working around the boating fraternity on England's inland waterways. Available from the publisher and leading bookstores, the work can also be purchased in eBook (.pdf) or AudioBook (.mp3) format for immediate download.
For more information, and to purchase your copy - click on the bookcover - NOW!
NOW AVAILABLE ON - Amazon Kindle!
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.
The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete highway.
We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat.
We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.
This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron."
Republican US President
Dwight D Eisenhower ~ April 16th, 1953
Thanks to Al Devito at "Vineyard Views" for the information.
SUPERPOWER
The works of Ben Turnbull take a satirical look at the lengths America's political elites go to in order to control and manipulate the way we think, from our first days of play to the last time we cast our vote. Turnbull is a passionate critic of the contemporary American political system, and explains why toys are central to his work: "Force fed on violence, abused by a controlling superpower and blackmailed through patriotism, the public are ultimately as disposable as the toys they once played with".
HOMECOMING
Click to enlarge
More works by Ben Turnbull can be found HERE
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DON'T BE FOOLED!
There is no such thing as "Clean Coal"
"Clean coal: Never was there an oxymoron more insidious, or more dangerous to our public health. Invoked as often by the Democratic presidential candidates as by the Republicans and by liberals and conservatives alike, this slogan has blindsided any meaningful progress toward a sustainable energy policy."[1]
Clean Coal Technology means taking the carbon dioxide from coalburning power stations and storing it underground. To date, that technology does not exist. It cannot be done. Even if sometime in the future it became possible, CO2 stored under the soil will eventually find a way to the surface and prove a legacy for our descendents we should not wish on them.
"Toxins from coal-fired power plants are spewed into our air and leach into our water, causing asthma, cancer and over 24,000 premature deaths each year. And just recently, in Tennessee, we all saw the catastrophic effects from the failure of one coal-ash impoundment on surrounding watersheds and communities."[2]
Think the 'War on Drugs' is a good thing? This book may convince you otherwise.
Highly Recommended! Click the Book.
Sparrow Chat does not benefit in any way from sales of this book.
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Sometimes, we just need a little peace........
Photo: Fall Colors .....and tranquility.
Photo: Power of Nature Click on images to full-size. |
by R J Adams November 20, 2007 at 11:15am
It was rough while it lasted, but I’m now happy to report myself on the road to recovery and raring to catch up on all the latest happenings.
Especial thanks to all of you who sent your best wishes for my recovery. They were truly appreciated. Also, a big thank you to my wife for looking after me so well and for putting up with probably the worst patient any nurse could ever have.
Thanks again.
RJ
Posted under Sparrow Chat
R J Adams November 20, 2007 at 11:15am No Comments
by R J Adams November 15, 2007 at 6:47pm
….due to influenza.
If I survive, Sparrow Chat will be back soon……(cough, splutter, sneeze!).
Posted under Sparrow Chat
R J Adams November 15, 2007 at 6:47pm 7 Comments
by R J Adams November 12, 2007 at 8:15pm
“The eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month.”
It has a certain ring to it, an air of mystery, almost spiritual; vaguely magical. Our memories of war are like that. They bestow on it a grace war doesn’t possess; an attribute reality swiftly denies.
If, that is, we stop to think about it for too long.
Yesterday was an anniversary. It marked the end of hostilities in World War One, a war that terminated with an armistice at 11am on November 11th, 1918. The armistice was signed at 5.00am on that day, but wouldn’t take effect until 11.00am. In those six brief hours, and despite everyone knowing what time the war would end, 10,900 allied soldiers were killed, wounded, or went missing.
“We remember those who gave their lives in the service of their country.”
Those words are spoken around the western world at commemorations on November 11th each year. How hollow they sound when the truth is known; when, that is, we stop to think about it for too long.
They never “gave” their lives. Ten million men had their lives forcibly taken away (over 20 million died in total) in the, so called, “Great War” of 1914-1918, and over nothing more than a political power struggle.
Those who yesterday displayed the most grief (in Britain they are those with the finest display of lapel poppies), who shuffle to the Cenotaphs and memorial stones with their synthetic wreaths and black mourning suits, are the political ancestors of the slaughterers – the politicians who, as always, got it wrong.
None of them died in the Great War of 1914-18.
They all died in their beds, with their wives or mistresses beside them, in their fancy bedrooms in their grandiose houses, with their female servants and their black market caviar.
None of them died of cold, or hunger, or bad meat, or shot at dawn by their own side because their minds and bodies had taken just that bit too much stress, and anguish, and fear.
“They gave up their lives for their country.”
“Giving” is a choice. These men had no choice. They were rounded up, shipped to France, and slaughtered en masse through the ineptitude of their own crackpot generals and power-crazy politicians.
It is right that we should remember them. It does their memory a disservice when what we remember about them is a lie.
“The eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month.”
It has a certain ring to it.
Unfortunately, the bell that tolls harbors a fatal crack.
Filed under: Political incorrectness
Posted under Sparrow Chat
R J Adams November 12, 2007 at 8:15pm 9 Comments
by R J Adams November 10, 2007 at 8:46pm
“”There are times I get up in the middle of the night and I say, ‘Oh my God, how are we going to solve it? God help me to help those kids!’” ~ Said Ismail Hakki, President of the Iraqi Red Crescent.
From CNN.com/world:
“The head of Iraq’s main humanitarian group said an 18-year-old approached him with a baby suffering from leukemia. The desperate mother said she’d do “anything” for treatment for her child — and then offered herself up for sex.
Said Ismail Hakki breaks down in tears as he recalls that story. Leukemia can be treatable to a degree in much of the world, but not in Iraq. The baby died two months later.
“It shook me like hell,” said Hakki, the president of the Iraqi Red Crescent. “All my life I’ve been a surgeon. I’ve seen blood; I’ve seen death. That never shook me — none whatsoever. But when I see the suffering of those people, that really shook me.”
The plight of Iraq’s children is nearing epidemic proportions, he said, with mothers and fathers abandoning their children “because they’re becoming a liability.” The parents don’t do it out of convenience, they do it out of desperation……”
Read the rest of this heart-rending story, and watch the videos, HERE.
Filed under: Bush’s victims
Posted under Sparrow Chat
R J Adams November 10, 2007 at 8:46pm 6 Comments
by R J Adams November 9, 2007 at 9:05pm
I try to be an observer; a recorder. My aim is to detach, and report what I see as I view it, forming opinions and offering conclusions for debate, hoping some will stop occasionally and think, “perhaps he’s got a point.”
Sometimes it fails to work that way. Just occasionally I get angry. So angry I could choke the life out of people so sanctimonious, so morally absurd, that I feel the world would truly be better off without them.
No, I’m not discussing the George Bush’s or Dick Cheney’s of this nation. One expects hypocrisy, and disdain of common humanity, from politicians. Choking to death is probably too good for them anyway.
The subject in question was highlighted this week when the board of the Mascoutah Middle School in southern Illinois, who have banned “public displays of affection” by students, ordered schoolgirl Megan Coulter to serve two detention sessions after saying goodbye for the weekend to two friends, by giving each of them a hug.
According to the school:
““Displays of affection should not occur on the school campus at any time. It is in poor taste, reflects poor judgment, and brings discredit to the school and to the persons involved.”
America, when you sink to this level of depravation, you are not only sick, you are terminally ill.
This is where your sanctimonious Christianity has led you. Physical affection has become a sin; an undesirable. It’s fine to play violent video games, watch fellow humans tortured on shows like “24″, but don’t dare to show the love of friendship or you risk being ostracized.
I think it was Jesus of Nazareth who said, “Suffer little children to come unto me.”
In America today, he would be arrested for pedophilia.
For three years I have driven forty grade school kids to school on a big yellow bus. My kids are not the athletic-tutored, good-Christian-family orientated, swots of middle class America. Those kids don’t ride the school bus. Mommy drives them to school in the fancy, latest model, Toyota Landcruiser with individual DVD screens in the back so her “little darlings” can watch their favorite program on the ride to school.
My kids don’t have parents like that. In fact, many of them don’t have parents at all, or if they have, they’re elsewhere doing anything but taking responsibility for their offspring, who are likely living with grandparents, other ‘relatives’, or a ‘babysitter’.
Half the kids on my bus get little physical affection, some only suffer abuse, a few just have that look of hopeless resignation you’ll occasionally see on the faces of children from the less affluent regions of Africa.
While training to drive a school bus we were told, “Don’t ever touch a child. Not EVER.” Most of my fellow trainees immediately responded with nods of understanding. It was dangerous even to pat a child’s head, or comfort any distress.
I’m sorry, America, but I don’t subscribe to your narrow-minded, immature, and misplaced ideas that affection is perverted. I love my kids; all forty of them. They may be the most unruly, snotty-nosed, often dirty and ill-kempt bunch of Fagan’s outlaws in the country, but they’re kids who need love and affection. If they want to give their bus driver a hug when they board the bus, they’re hugged in return. For some it may be the only hug they’ll get all day.
What are you trying to do to your kids, America?
Somehow I think the Christ that you worship so falsely would turn his back and walk away from your hypocrisy.
Filed under: Suffer the children
Posted under Sparrow Chat
R J Adams November 9, 2007 at 9:05pm 11 Comments
by R J Adams November 9, 2007 at 11:39am
The US media is either jubilant over the slowdown in violence around Baghdad, or just ignoring the occupation altogether. Really, there’s not a lot to be optimistic about. Last month the Iraqi death toll fell by half, from 2,400 to around 1,200. Would New Yorkers be out celebrating on the streets if they had been losing 2,400 citizens a month and it had suddenly dropped to only 1,200?
The BBC website has been running a series of extracts from Iraqi blogs. It admits most of the English speaking bloggers have now left the country, though managed to find three still writing from inside Iraq, and one, Riverbend, now in Syria.
“Aunt Najma”, a nineteen year old girl from Mosul, ends her post:
“We’re really strangers in our country… oh well, excuse me, I don’t think “our” should be used anymore. I’m not sure whose country it is, but it’s not mine for sure.”
Perhaps, after all, the Americans are winning.
Filed under: War crimes unpunished
Posted under Sparrow Chat
R J Adams November 9, 2007 at 11:39am 3 Comments
"Sparrow Chat" is the website/blog of R.J.Adams, a British writer living in America. The name derives from my first book "Even Little Sparrows", an autobio of my years with the British RSPCA. Some may disagree with my views on certain subjects. Comments are welcome, provided they are of an intellectual and constructive nature. No obscenities, please - unless necessary to the description of certain politicians and others of that ilk.
"Flying The Flag, Faking The News"
"...intelligent manipulation of the organised habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society and the manipulators constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power in our country" ~ "Propaganda", Edward Bernays (1928)
In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger traces the history of propaganda to Edward Bernays, the American nephew of Sigmund Freud, who invented the term "public relations". Bernays believed in "engineering public consent" and creating "false realties" as news...
The American tobacco industry hired Bernays to convince women they should smoke in public. By associating smoking with women's liberation, he made cigarettes "torches of freedom". In 1954, he conjured a communist menace in Guatemala as an excuse for overthrowing the democratically-elected government, whose social reforms were threatening the United Fruit company's monopoly of the banana trade. He called it a "liberation".
Bernays was no rabid right-winger. He was an elitist liberal who believed that "engineering public consent" was for the greater good. This was achieved by the creation of "false realities" which then became "news events"...
Read more at this month's Hot-Link:-
John Pilger, September 2nd 2010
~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I too have been a close observer of the doings of the Bank of the United States. I have had men watching you for a long time and I am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the Bank. You are a den of vipers and thieves." ~ Andrew Jackson (1834)
Socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor
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Religious freedom is an absolute right and so is freedom from religion.
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The world consumes around 86 million barrels of oil every day. When the price of a barrel rises by $3, it generates an additional $94 billion dollars per year for.......someone?
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Roughly a fifth of the earth's oxygen is produced in the Amazon rainforest, or "one breath in five".
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In 1842, following a visit to America, Charles Dickens wrote of the capital, Washington:
"Despicable trickery at elections; under-handed tamperings with public officers; and cowardly attacks upon opponents, with scurrilous newspapers for shields, and hired pens for daggers".
Nothing changes, it seems.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The No-Fly List: 21,000 people so dangerous they're not allowed to fly, yet so innocent they can't be arrested." ~ Bruce Schneier.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
About
RJ Adams
Illinois
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"Even Little Sparrows"
by
R J Adams.
Recalling life as an animal welfare inspector in 1970's England, Even Little Sparrows is now available for immediate download as a revised and updated eBook, while still obtainable from the publisher and leading bookstores in its original paperback format. Over 300 pages of heart-rending, yet often hilarious anecdotes weave a poignant love story around the lives of characters dedicated to caring for the sick and unwanted of the animal kingdom.
For more information, and to purchase your copy - click on the bookcover - NOW!
SPECIAL OFFER! - and only for Sparrow Chat readers!
Obtain your copy of the eBook (1.2Mb) absolutely FREE just by clicking on the link.
(NO credit card charge will be levied)
Mars Award for fighting spirit and unflinching opposition to the wrongs of this world - awarded to "Sparrow Chat"
by TWILIGHT
